Friday, July 11, 2008

Day 4 - Lectures begin

Yesterday, July 10, 2008, we had our first set of lectures. We heard from Sharon Darrow, author of a wonderful book called Painters of Lexieville (and others), and Alan Cumyn, author of The Secret Life of Owen Skye (and others), and Louise Hawes, author of Black Pearls (and others). Then we had workshop, where we spent 2 hours discussing 2 very talented people's work. My workshop day is sometime next week, I think. We also went to a graduate lecture that was fabulous, faculty readings, and of course, speed dating. That was where we had about an hour or so to interview each of the 15 faculty members so we could choose 8 for our list. Basically it is a process of elimination-who do I not want to work with. Some factors are that an advisor works with primarily poetry, for example. I am not a poet, so I would not want to work with her. It was a mad dash around the campus to ask a question or two of each advisor.

Food has been interesting. Last night for dinner it was Tempe Dogs. I think that's a form of tofu in the shape of a hot dog. I had vegetables and a piece of bread. The cookies though are another story.

Then of course there was karaoke. I only stayed for a few minutes, and it was fun, but by that time my brain was frazzled and I needed some time back in the room to decompress before going to sleep. I was not the only one.

What did I learn?

In Sharon's workshop and in Louise's workshop, I learned ways to dig deeper to get to the true heart and passion of the character. In Alan's workshop, I learned some of the pitfalls of writing and how to avoid them. In the grad. lecture, I learned the science of creating humor. In workshop, I learned to read carefully and what things to look for when critiquing a piece of writing. I learned nothing in Karaoke that I didn't already know (I am not brave enough to get up and sing unless I have many magaritas!)

Today's agenda:

Today is registration, so I have to fork over the money. Also lectures by Shelley Tanaka, Tim Wynne-Jones, and MT Anderson. Tonight is yet another cocktail party and then an auction of some sort run by Tim Wynne-Jones and MT Anderson. Should be fun!